They hoard water, manufacture food at night and con their helpers into working for free.

Beneath their celebrated blooms, desert wildflowers are survivalists — plants that vigorously defend their place in a hard, parched land. Some shed their leaves at the first hint of drought, while others stash water in succulent tissue or shield it from evaporation with delicate hairs. There are tricksters that reproduce by scamming pollinators with false promises of mates and nectar.

Behind its spring flower majesty, the California desert is a laboratory for such dry-weather adaptations.

Desert annuals, the showy blooms that carpet canyons in spring, persist by living fast and dying young. They spend water lavishly to grow broad green leaves and flashy blossoms during rains, and then swiftly go to seed.

“These fast-growing showy annuals grow in the desert when it’s not really a desert,” said Travis Huxman, director of the Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center. “They just have to get their life cycles taken care of in really quick order.”

Then there are the old-timers: age-tested cacti and creosote, which can live for decades through clever water-conservation schemes. From nighttime photosynthesis to sophisticated moisture barriers, they employ a host of strategies to make the most of scarce supplies of water.

“Everything is driven by aridity here,” said Kate Harper, a botanist in Borrego Springs. “That’s the driving force. How can I lose as little moisture as possible while still creating the sugar I need to live and grow? How can I grab moisture and keep it?”

Wildflowers are starting to bloom now at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and other desert locales, and they typically peak in late March and April. While botanists said low rainfall may lessen this year’s display, there’s still plenty of color if you observe closely.

“The trick about looking at desert flowers is to get out of your car, walk out a ways and look at things,” said Judy Gibson, collection manager for the botany department at the San Diego Natural History Museum.

The following is an introduction to some flowers that populate Southern California’s deserts and chaparral shrub lands, focused on how they gain a roothold in rock and sand. Included are some mainstays of the region — plants you can see even in low water years — along with more unusual blooms.

Barrel cactus

Ferocactus cylindraceus — Stout succulents shaped like their namesake, these plants are experts at retaining water. The thick, cylindrical stem has vertical pleats that expand when the plant absorbs water. This allows the cactus to increase its volume by up to 50 percent in high water conditions and then shrink back in dry weather. Like other cacti, the barrel cactus absorbs carbon dioxide at night through a process called CAM photosynthesis. That means the cactus opens its stomata — pores on its stem that control gas exchange — when the weather is cooler, cutting moisture loss. Its spines also safeguard moisture by shielding it from the wind. In spring, the barrel cactus blossoms with yellow, red or fuchsia flowers.

Chuparosa

Justicia californica — The chuparosa reduces water loss by having just a few scattered leaves. It instead depends on its light green stems to photosynthesize. Hummingbirds visit the plant’s flowers, giving it its name — which is based on the Spanish verb “chupar,” meaning to suck. Ancient Greeks used leaves from the Mediterranean variety of chuparosa as decoration for the capital of the Corinthian column.

Ocotillo

Fouquieria splendens — With serpentine branches 10 to 20 feet high tipped with flaming red flowers, the ocotillo towers over other desert flora. The ocotillo is drought deciduous: It can sprout leaves almost overnight in wet weather and drop those leaves as soon as the weather turns dry. “If it gets wet, they photosynthesize like crazy, setting up that sugar factory,” said Harper, the botanist in Borrego Springs. The plant is so effective at producing leaves quickly that it can do so without nutrients from its roots. Cut specimens will sprout leaves when soaked in water.

Creosote

Larrea tridentata — These low-lying shrubs with yellow blossoms are some of the most drought-tolerant plants in North America. Creosote branches die off in dry years. Then cloned sprouts pop up around it, forming creosote rings that can stretch many meters across and live thousands of years. Scientists estimate that a particular “king creosote” in the Mojave Desert is 11,700 years old. Thick, resinous leaves help keep in water, while the plant’s bitter smell and flavor help keep herbivores away. Its flowers rotate after being fertilized, making the petals less obvious and diverting pollinators to the unfertilized flowers.

Desert annuals

Wallace’s daisy, whispering bells, desert primrose, common phacelia — Desert annuals are classic spring field flowers. They’re also rock stars of the floral world, taking center stage before fading out. Their strategy is drought avoidance. These ephemeral plants live in seed for most of the year, explode into blossom during wet months and then go to seed again, biding time until their next comeback. Individual flowers have other specialized features, such as fine hairs on their leaves to slow down moisture loss or seed inhibitors that prevent germination until enough rain washes them off. “The seeds are their legacy,” Harper said.

Ghost flower

Mohavea confertiflora — Named for its ethereal and pale yellow blooms, this flower has uncommon adaptations. It employs double mimicry, impersonating both a nectar-producing plant and a female bee. The ghost flower looks similar to the blazing star, an unrelated species. The blazing star produces nectar, and the ghost flower rides on its coattails: It entices bees with the promise of nourishment, but without the metabolic expense of actually producing any. The flower also features a red design that resembles a female bee. This fake insect tempts male bees, affording cheap and easy pollination, said Gibson at the San Diego Natural History Museum. “That’s another kind of dirty trick — lure the male bees in with an imitation female bee,” she said.